Life & Work with Oana Gamlowski of Rancho Palos Verdes

Today we’d like to introduce you to Oana Gamlowski.

Hi Oana, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in Romania, in a place where you learned early to make something out of whatever was in front of you. I didn’t come to painting through art school or a straight line. I came to it the long way, with a full career already underway, and I started taking it seriously the way some people take up running: timidly, quietly, then full speed.
I studied briefly with Michael Brennan, then with D.E. Giese, who taught me art fundamentals and color theory in a way that rewired how I see. I started showing my work in early 2024. Since then, it’s been a steady run of group shows across Southern California: TAG Gallery in midtown LA, shows associated with the Palos Verdes Art Center, and South Bay galleries in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Santa Monica. I still hold a corporate job. The studio time and the PowerPoint complement each other, the discipline of one feeds the other, plus the constant use of the creative muscle has made me better at my career.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No, it wasn’t, and I wouldn’t trust it if it had been. The biggest hurdle was simply starting late and being intimidated by it. There’s an unspoken assumption that if you didn’t dedicate your twenties to art, you’ve missed your window. I’m still working on introducing myself as “I’m Oana. I’m the artist.”
The other struggle is more practical. Some of my work lives on unconventional surfaces: wood cylinders, tin lids, and not everyone knows what to do with that at first. And juried shows are simply unpredictable: a rejection stings, then a month later the same piece finds exactly the right show. You learn to keep making what you believe in and let the shows sort themselves out. This August alone I’ve got work in six shows across Southern California, starting with Diversions Fine Arts Gallery at TRYST International Art Fair 2026, at Del Amo Crossing, in Torrance.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I paint in oil, alla prima… wet, fast, mostly in a single sitting, so the painting either works or it doesn’t, as I rarely fix it after. Depending on the surface I’ll work with a palette knife or a brush; the immediacy is the constant. That’s when I’m in the zone.
What ties everything together is what I call color courage. Color as an emotional language, not decoration. I work in series, and they range from nearly abstract to conceptual representation: one series puts Kandinsky’s circle vocabulary on surfaces never meant to hold paint, like discarted wood cylinders and gum tin lids; another paints supermarket peppers with enough seriousness to ask why a taped banana gets a museum wall and a pepper doesn’t. Somewhere between the two sits everything else: hands that can’t lie, cities and their emotional load, animals with opinions.
What I’m proudest of is that the work is recognizably mine, and that moment when I see a viewer stop, intrigued, in front of a piece.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Find the teacher who changes how you see. For me that was D.E. Giese. I didn’t go looking for a mentor; I loved her paintings and I went looking for better painting techniques, and the mentorship came with it. The truth is that mentorship usually arrives sideways, while you’re busy trying to learn or do something specific. Deborah continues to be my inspiration and my art critic, the person who always gives me the nudge to be better, follow my vision, and who comes to most of the shows I’m in, right alongside my family.
As for networking, I’m suspicious of the word in any context. What matters to me is being generous and being present: showing up to other artists’ openings, saying the true thing about someone’s work, staying in touch without an agenda. This interview exists because an amazing juror, curator, art lover, and gallery owner, Genie Davis, thought of me.
I’m grateful to have people like Deborah and Genie in my life, together with a few other wonderfully supportive artists.
And the cherry on the cake is family. My better half, Paul, has always encouraged me to pursue my dreams, and as a bonus, his first five-second reaction to a new piece tells me whether I have something, or whether it’s one I’ll just leave behind.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.iogvisualart.com
• Instagram: iog_visualart

Image Credits
Image credits: D.E. Giese, Genie Davis, V. Jung, P. Gamlowski, other friends and family